


Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

by Marguerite Muguet (margueritem)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-28
Updated: 2011-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-28 07:30:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/305365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/margueritem/pseuds/Marguerite%20Muguet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted to my livejournal on November 25th, 2005.</p><p>Betaed by fledge. All remaining errors are mine.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to my livejournal on November 25th, 2005.
> 
> Betaed by fledge. All remaining errors are mine.

The first time they meet, Rodney is methodically showing to the idiots - also known as doctors of astrophysics, but really they don't live up to the doctorates they found in their cereal boxes - how and where they went wrong. How their mistake would have resulted in an explosion, which in itself is not bad for it would have rid the world of the scientists' incompetence, but the explosion would also have taken out a quarter of the planet, and Earth happens to need that quarter - as does Rodney McKay, who lives there.

A colonel stands at the door, smirking and dressed in full Air Force uniform - and that, right there, shuts Rodney up, because he's always enjoyed a body in a uniform. Pity the colonel isn't a blond.

"Doctor Rodney McKay, I presume?"

Throwing a last look at the not-cowering scientists, Rodney says, "That's me."

"Good!" The colonel takes a paper out of his briefcase and hands it out. "Your country needs you."

"I'm Canadian."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he drawls.

And then the colonel - Jack O'Neill, two L's - takes him out to dinner, in a little diner that has seen better days, but Rodney doesn't care since the food is good. At two in the morning, the Colonel, his companion and Rodney are the only clients of the place.

While Rodney is eating rapidly, Colonel O'Neill talks about giving him a job, in a secret military facility. The man beside O'Neill, big tall guy with a brown floppy hat, whose name Rodney has already forgotten, sits there, calmly watching the disappearing food, the moving fork...

Briefly, Rodney wonders why they would send two military men to recruit him, and not scientists. His current job bores him, and O'Neill closes the deal by saying, "We'll put you in charge and you can boss everyone around."

Rodney protests that he does not boss people around; he merely shows them the error of their ways. O'Neill seems to be strangely pleased about that. Maybe the man's unbalanced.

Rodney accepts the job, and he's thrown directly into work trying to figure out how this Stargate thing works and how to get a certain Captain Carter out of its memory.

**

The first week, Rodney puts up his diplomas, photos of his various cats and valued souvenirs in his office. At the end of that week, he realises that the SGC is constantly at risk of blowing up and takes the diplomas and memorabilia back to his new apartment.

He doesn't spend much time in his office anyway; he much more enjoys being in the lab, drinking crappy military coffee, eating delicious MREs, and, yes, bossing the other scientists around. He argues with Major Carter, who always stands her ground even though she's wrong half of the time, and during an argument, he asks her out. He's a genius; she's very intelligent and blonde.

She flat out refuses and spends the rest of the week avoiding him until the next crisis arises, and they have to work together to avert yet another ending of the world.

Rodney often sees Colonel O'Neill around the lab, usually getting in the way, touching and handling things he should never even *look* at. He figures he's there to see Carter, since Rodney has heard by now that the Colonel does not like scientists.

But one day he wonders whether O'Neill doesn't like to watch him firmly put the other scientists - except Major Carter - back in their places, but he dismisses the thought as brought on by lack of food and caffeine.

**

Rodney's first off-world trip leaves a lot to be desired. There are trees, but they offer no proper cover from the glaring, carcinogenic sun. The obligatory gun is heavy, and the thigh holster must be causing loss of circulation.

He's also acutely aware of the low and high buzzing of different insects, any of which might kill him in an instant.

"Shut up!" shouts Colonel O'Neill from the front of the line, but Rodney knows this planet is safe, as safe as any planet could be, and he continues to raise valid points on the dangers to his safety.

Finally, exasperated, O'Neill threatens to steal all his chocolate and withhold it for a week.

Rodney shuts up, holds his scanner, trudges along as best he can, and pretends he doesn't enjoy this.

**

When SG-6 get their hands on Ancient devices, Rodney commandeers them, over the cries of other scientists, and he and Carter hide in her office. They work sixteen hours straight on the things; only pausing to drink her horrible coffee and raid Doctor Brown's office for the secret stash of chocolate.

Colonel O'Neill comes by for a progress report: Carter is asleep on her desk, and Rodney is glaring at the offending devices, devouring a Kit Kat. As far as they can tell, the devices do *nothing*, which is why Rodney doesn't react when O'Neill starts playing with one.

Unexpectedly, the device lights up, and Rodney's [not at all high pitched] cry wakes up Carter. "Yes, sir! Reporting for duty sir!" Her hair is sticking up in places, and there's the imprint of a book corner on her cheek.

O'Neill glares at Rodney. "You said they were dead!"

Rodney sputters, and Carter catches the device before it hits the floor.

They eventually figure out that the Colonel can activate Ancient devices, but they never understand why. Rodney refuses to believe that, beyond his jealousy, at that moment, he falls a tiny bit in love with O'Neill.

**

He remembers her inexpressive face as she lay in the hospital bed, connected to machines in every way possible. The coldness of the computerized voice. The emptiness in her eyes. Her body crumpled on the concrete floor. The stillness of her chest.

Teal'c is probably still standing over Carter's dead body, in the SGC morgue. Watching over her, guarding her in death, like they couldn't in life.

Rodney ends up at Jack's house. Not the first time he's seen it, but certainly the first at night.

A big bottle of whisky - bought on the way over - stands half empty on the kitchen table. At the other side of it sits Jack - in this moment, never the Colonel - probably not as drunk as he might want to be.

Still on his first glass of whisky, Rodney tries not to feel guilty. He couldn't know the virus would take over Sam; they'd both - Sam and he - wanted to communicate with it. Thinking like this feels too much like trying to put some of the blame on Sam. Beautiful, broken Sam.

He gathers the guilt and holds it close, like the glass in his hand.

He doesn't know what to say to Jack, who's closed down more than ever. He's never known how to act in these situations; he doesn't understand why he followed Jack out of the base, all the way back to this house.

When Jack gets up, Rodney doesn't expect to be kissed. Jack's breathing is harsh and his tongue desperate against Rodney's.

Rodney decides not to care why Jack is grieving like this. Jack's hands are cold on Rodney's neck, but they soon warm up.

**

The fifth time Rodney wakes up in Jack's bed, he finds a steaming cup of coffee on the bedside table. He drinks it, but says nothing to Jack, when ten minutes later he passes by him to leave the house.

At the beginning, it doesn't happen often. They work through their grief this way; and then, their main frustrations, when a mission goes wrong or when experiments fail spectacularly. Everything goes away with friendly, but distant sex.

After three months, Rodney still refuses to think about what's happening, behind closed doors, the drapes drawn, but not always during the night.

About the coffee made just right in the morning and the disappearance of all citrus fruits.

About the National Geographics in one of the closets, which Rodney mocked but finds himself buying in the supermarket and bringing back to Jack's house.

About clothes on the floor and bodies tightly pressed together.

He doesn't think about it, but glares at his laptop and works on physics problems, that have causes and effects and mathematical equations that explain everything.

**

They try running, but would never make it to the gate in time: not with the Colonel's leg or with Rodney's arm. The Goa'uld have ample time to secure the gate, before they ever make it there.

Colonel O'Neill says they have to find a secure place to hide. As they look for an empty tree trunk, snow starts to fall heavily, and the wind picks up. The cold bites and the snow makes it difficult to see, but it will at least hide their tracks.

The trees on this planet are gigantic, and Rodney is reminded of the only visit his family made to British Columbia, to see the giant Douglas firs. He'd vomited on the trail; this had prompted yet another fight between his parents, and Jeannie had protested wildly against walking so much. They'd never gone on vacation again together.

Supporting the Colonel, whose hurt leg leaves specks of blood on the white, white snow, Rodney follows the other man's directions, until they find an empty tree trunk. The bitter taste of fear is sharp in Rodney's mouth.

They burrow inside. The Colonel sits facing the entrance, holding his weapon. Rodney's face hurts; it's only marginally warmer inside, and when it comes back, sensation on the exposed skin is painful. The blood on his face has dried, and it falls off in flecks when Rodney passes his hands over his eyes and brow.

"Get the first aid kit."

He searches in their packs for the kit. Following instructions, he cleans and dresses the Colonel's wound as best he can. O'Neill grimaces and keeps guard. Rodney then treats his own wound; it hurts and his hands are clumsy.

The snow is falling so heavily Rodney wouldn't be suprised if it accumulated on the ground and hid the entrance to their refuge. As Rodney places their sleeping bags over them both, the Colonel simply says, "I hate the snow and the cold."

Right, Antarctica, where he and Sam - and why does it still hurt to think of her? - ended up stuck near the second gate. Rodney thinks he could hate the snow and the cold, too, after this planet.

Rodney wonders whether he's in shock or scared out of his mind. When he saw the Colonel fall, his heart stopped for a second. He thinks he might have babbled, but O'Neill had yelled, "Shup up, get me up and get moving. Now." He'd shut up and followed orders, and the fear that still tightly squeezes his heart prevents him from talking.

He glances at the other man, who watches the entrance, one arm on his weapon outside the covers. He thinks of regretting his decision to join the Stargate program, of having accepted to go on off-world missions with SG-1 sometimes, when Major Carter was unavailable; of ending up on alien planets being shot at by pissed-off primitives and Goa'uld; but...

O'Neill hands him a power bar. "You should eat."

Rodney takes it, opens it and it's only when he bites into it that he realises it's his favourite kind. "It's..."

"What?" Jack doesn't look at him.

"Nothing. Thanks."

"Okay, your silence is freaking me out here." Jack throws him an amused look, and the tightening around his eyes tells Rodney that the painkillers aren't enough to dull the pain.

And he loses it. He loudly points out how this is all Jack's fault for recruiting him, for asking him to go off-world, for taking him to planets where there are primitives with more sharp weapons than sense and Goa'uld with bad fashion sense. Aren't there enough things on Earth that could kill them? Bees, lemons, cars, the *sun*? He's too valuable to die in a tree trunk, and Jack's important, too, he supposes.

And because Jack never interrupts or tells him to shut up, Rodney knows that they're as safe as they can be. He settles down and finishes the bar.

The entrance is now practically covered with snow. Maybe the Goa'uld won't find them, maybe the SGC will send back a rescue force. SG-3 is good at that. Maybe. Jack's hand briefly presses Rodney's in silent reassurance. Rodney's heart seems to be inside an iron fist and thumping loudly in his ears.

Rodney is never reckless; when he does something, he's sure of the cause and effects and the equations, and everything that could - according to the laws of physics - go wrong. But Jack is hurt; they're cold; they might die soon.

He breaks the second rule established at the beginning of this relationship; he kisses Jack - off-world - and Jack doesn't stop him. Their lips are cold, but their breath is hot against each other's skin. Rodney knows this relationship makes no sense; it defies the laws of the world, the laws of the universe, the laws of common sense. But at that moment, in an empty tree trunk on an alien planet, with both of them hurt - and Jack, who can be friendly yet distant, but attentive in his actions - Rodney doesn't care if this doesn't make sense. He breaks the second rule, because now he's pretty sure they'd broken the first rule already.

People like Colonel Jack O'Neill and Doctor Rodney McKay aren't supposed to fall in love with each other.


End file.
